The Boss Monster Is My Teacher
by KaeterinaRomanov
Summary: Hanako Ishii manages to live through the hell of SAO only to get thrown into the reality of a new type of death game. Is she going to play along with the class, or will she play by her own rules?
1. Chapter 1

Hanako Ishii had a very normal, happy, life up until she was eight-years-old. Everything in her life fell apart shortly after she turned eight. Herself and her brother were part of a car accident. They had been walking home from school when a car jumped the curb. Seven people died that day, the driver of the car included. Hanako herself got a broken arm, a large gash across her back, and a cut on her forehead. Both cuts forever scarred her, showing her survival of the crash. Her brother, however, however, wasn't so lucky. Her brother had protected her and in doing so got so injured that he fell into a coma. Her brother never woke up from his coma.

What happened to her brother completely destroyed her parents. Her dad became distant, staying away from home for long periods of time, throwing himself into his business. Her father was a very wealthy man and all of the extra time put in at the company made it flourish. Her father ran a technology company and with how well it took off he was now one of the richest men in Japan. She guesses that he figured that if he could throw enough money at the problem then her brother would just wake up. Her parents refused to unplug her brother, even though the doctors told them that there was no way he would ever wake up. To put it lightly her mother became insane. Her mom was an engineer scientist and she became obsessed with uploading her brother's brain into a computer. Her mother realized that while his body would never wake up, she could still save his mind. Whatever was left of it anyway. Whenever she wasn't at work, she was at home getting drunk. Her mom was a very mean drunk. As her parents threw themselves into their respective jobs to try and save her brother, they became more and more negligent of her. Hanako learned early on how to take care of herself. She learned how to lie about the bruises and making excuses for the lack of her parents. Then the fights between her parents started. The nights grew loud with the yelling, and her parents seemed to forget about her a bit more and more each day. Within a year her parents got divorced. Her dad abandoning her with her drunk and absentee mother. She went to visit him every other weekend, but him actually being home was rare. He really only came home from the office to sleep. But even then, he did have a small apartment at the business he owned and most of the time he slept there. He did expect her to keep up to his expectations, however.

The years flew past and Hanako drew away from people more and more. She didn't have many if any, friends. She spent most of her time at school avoiding other people, so they wouldn't ask too many questions about her home life. She learned how to perfect her mask, showing a happy go lucky girl who was bothered by nothing. On the inside she was slowly dying. While she absolutely hated her mother, she also didn't want to get thrown into the foster system. She had found her sanctuary in a corner of the library; she had found she could lose herself in the fiction stories. Her love of sci-fi, fantasy, mystery, and adventure stories had led her to want to experience them herself. That train of thought had led her to gaming. She loved playing games, and she was very good at playing them. Then when she was eleven years old the company her mom worked with came out with the nerve gear. Along with that invention came with the beta-test for Sword Art Online or SAO. Now, while Hanako was a big gamer she had some pretty good times with VR, but she wasn't so sure about full diving. She didn't really want to lose herself into a game completely, what if she started getting confused about which world was the real one? Her mom however, she had a different plan. Her mom had forced her to be one of the beta testers for the game. Her mother actually picked her up after school and took her to work with her. She usually just walked home herself to her empty home. She did her dives from the lab that was coming out with the game. They took tests of her vitals and monitored her while she was in her dives. She knew that they recorded everything that she did in the game so they could get rid of any glitches or anything like that. For an entire month, Hanako did her best to get as far as she could through the SAO beta. As the beta came to an end she ended up as the second-best player. A player called Kirito had been slightly better than her; she had never actually seen the player, but she had heard a lot about him.

Then on November 6th, less than a month from her twelfth birthday, SAO launched. Her mom once again forced her to participate. She actually got to do it from home this time, so that was nice. Right as she was about to start the game her mom had sat down on the edge of the bed and said something that she would never forget, "Make sure to enjoy yourself in there sweetie, there is a fun surprise today." She had said with a crazy smile on her face.

With a sigh, Hanako activated her nerve gear, "Link start." Suddenly she was in the character creation screen. Her eyes lit up slightly when she saw the option to load an old character. Deciding she didn't want to waste time she loaded up her beta game character. It didn't really matter what she looked like in-game. She really didn't plan on being here long, she had homework to do and a test to prep for. She pressed accept and seconds later she got dropped into the town of beginnings. She stretched slightly as she looked around, all she would have to do was waste a few hours before logging out.

Well if she was being honest with herself, her mom will most likely make her play more than just a few hours on the opening day. So, she might as well start leveling herself up. Being under-leveled seriously sucked and usually ended up with her dying and losing a ton of supplies. She planned on going with the same strategy in the beta, so her first stop was the weapons shop. She sold her starting weapons and bough the most expensive dagger she could afford. She liked going the assassin route, it fit her small and fast stature.

Hanako; well her character was named Hana, oh so original she knew. She didn't feel like being called a name that was too different from her own; and she figured if she did have friends, they might have called her Hana as a nickname. Hana made her way out of the town of beginnings to start killing some boars. She had been killing boars for a little over half an hour and she was already level four. She had gotten some good drops that would sell decently well too. Suddenly she heard a couple of other players, she hadn't actually run into anybody else yet.

She saw a black-haired man teaching a red-haired man the basics on how to attack. A smirk came onto her face, maybe she could help them. As the red-haired man's attack failed again, she called out, "Hey boys need some help?"

She spent the next hour spending time with Kirito and Klien. She was wondering if this Kirito was the same one from the beta test. If he was, she really wanted to have a long talk with him, he obviously must love games as much as she did. She actually had a really good time killing the starter boars with the two of them.

Then Klien tried to log-out. Hanako went into a panic when she realized the log-out button was missing from their menu screens. The last thing her mom had said filtered through her mind, "A fun surprise." Oh god did her mom know about this? Was this a planned thing? She clung onto Kirito's arm, fear rampant in her mind. All three of them were teleported to the town of beginnings and their lives in SAO started. Hanako came to the horrifying realization that yes, her mom did know about this and was equally responsible for 213 people's deaths already. She knew her mom was insane, but she didn't realize she was quite that crazy. Both Kirito and Klien had been shocked and horrified at her true age now that that truth of this game was revealed. After Kayaba had vanished, having delivered his message, Kirito had grabbed both Klien and herself and dragged them to the edge of town.

"Come with me?" Kirito had asked us.

Klien had declined, saying he had friends that were waiting for him. Kirito looked conflicted but nodded in understanding. He turned to her, "Hana?" There had been a pleading tone to his voice. He really thought that her best chance of survival was with him, he just wanted to help her survive. At that moment Kirito reminded her so much of her brother, who was always so overprotective of her, that she couldn't say no.

"I'll come with you." Hana had answered.

Klien had sighed slightly before giving Kirito a look, "Keep her safe man, she's too young to be stuck in something like this."

The two boys had clasped hands and grinned at each other as Kirito promised to keep her safe. They had split up after that, Klien going to find his friends in the town of beginnings, Kirito and Hana delving into the woods to take on the slightly higher-level wolves.

A little under a month passed by and the date became December 1st. Hanako turned twelve and over 2,000 players had already lost their lives. Kirito had gifted her a simple yet pretty necklace. She had accidentally let her upcoming birthday slip a few days prior. They had just gotten to the town where the meeting to take down the first-floor boss was taking place. Both of them had made the decision that they were going to do everything they could to help beat the game. Not helping just didn't feel right to them, though Hanako's reasons were a bit more personal. She felt slightly responsible for her mother's hand in this death game. They got a room at one of the Inns in the town and had cake for supper.

A few days later the first-floor clearing meeting took place. That was the first day she met Asuna. When the leader of the meeting said to get into groups Kirito had grabbed her wrist and dragged her over to the girl in the cloak. When she had sent him a questioning look as they usually stayed to themselves, he had smiled at her, "Don't worry Hana, I ran into her yesterday. She seems pretty nice."

Kirito hadn't been wrong, Asuna was very nice. For a moment it almost seemed like their duo could become a trio. Then the leader of the clearer group, a beta tester going for the last kill bonus, died. Kirito and Hana got blamed as Kirito ended up getting the bonus, this really cool black coat. That was the day the term beater was created. Kirito and herself wore the term loud and proud so the other beta players wouldn't get ganged up on. They had to leave Asuna behind so she wouldn't be associated with them. Which kinda sucked, Asuna was really nice and super talented.

A few days later both herself and Kirito completed the quest to get the martial arts extra skill. The rest of the month passed quickly. The two of them spent that time leveling up and putting skill points into their appropriate battle technique skills. Kirito was focusing on swords (both one-handed and two-handed), strength, health, and the martial arts skill. Hana was focusing on daggers, speed, strength, the martial arts skill, and luck.

The next memorial moment was at the beginning of January they ran into a man wearing a cloak. They couldn't really see much of him other than his creepy smile. He had said, "It's showtime." Before walking away. Hana didn't really know why the short moment stood out to her so much, but she had a very bad feeling about that man.

The next few months passed by quickly, the two helping to clear boss floors. By March 31st up to floor 24 had been cleared and they were working on clearing the 25th floor. The clearing party planned on going later during the day when she saw the Aincrad Liberation Squad (ALS) head in towards the boss room.

That day over half of the ALS was annihilated. After that the ones that had survived disbanded, not wanting to follow the leader that had caused so many deaths. Hana had heard from Asuna, who they had run into every once in a while, and had become friends, that a new guild had been formed after they had left. It was called Knights of the Blood Oath, in memory of the fallen ALS members. Asuna herself had joined and was one of the higher-ranking members.

A few days later the duo saved a group from a monster that was slightly higher than the group. The group had thanked them by buying them dinner. They had then been invited to join the Moonlit Black Cats when they learned they weren't part of a guild yet. They almost didn't join, but in the end, they did decide to accept their offer. They needed a break from the darker side of this game for a while, especially after the ALS fiasco. So as of April 8th, 2023, the two joined their first guild. Hanako could honestly say it was fun. The members messed around with each other; it was obvious they were old friends. They decided to hide their true level, and that they were beaters from them. Just for a little while, they wanted to be just normal players for a while. For two months life was good. Hana became really good friends with Sachi, who was really insecure about herself. Hana was trying to help her be stronger, just like Sachi wanted.

Then their arrogance got the best of them. The leader of their guild had announced they had finally saved up enough money to get themselves a house. So, while the leader went to go buy the house the rest of them went out to do a bit of resource gathering. They had never stood a chance. There had been a trap room, made to level the enemies to the highest leveled member that entered. Which had been Kirito and Hana, they were a good twenty levels above their fellow guildmates. The enemies slaughtered their friends. Kirito and Hana tried very hard to kill the monsters before they could kill everyone. The boys were lost causes the surprise attack, but Sachi was still fighting her best. They were too slow. The two of them killed everything in the room in a blind rage, though it was a hard fight. When they had to tell the leader about what happened, something changed in Hanako. After he found out the news he jumped right off the edge of Aincrad, killing himself. From that day Hanako swore that she would never, ever join a guild again. She was a curse to everyone around her; her brother, her parents, Kirito and all of their bad luck, the Moonlit Black Cats. No, she would not pull anyone into her cursed life, not again. Kirito was the only exception as he had been with her since the beginning, he was extremely strong, and he would never let her go off on her own. They were basically brother and sister at this point, they honestly thought of each other as family. They had been through too much together not to become close. Hanako hadn't told Kirito himself, but Kirito was her everything. If it ever came down to his or her life on the battlefield she would not hesitate to give her life for his. Kirito was strong, this bright light in this death game. She had a feeling that he was destined for something great. They had gotten past the whole not talking about your real-life thing and she learned a lot about Kirito's life. He had a loving family waiting for him, even if it wasn't his birth family. He had friends and a good future waiting for him. What did she have to go back to? If her mother had kept her involvement a secret then she would be sent right back to her abusive drunk mother that had willingly sent 10,000 people into a death game. If her mom was miraculously arrested then she would be sent to her absentee dad who forgot she existed unless it benefited him. She had no friends and no plans what-so-ever for the future. Kirito was so important to her. He acknowledged that she existed, he helped her all the time, he was super nice and she honestly thought of him as her older brother.

After the death of the Moonlit Black Cats, they dropped off the grid for a bit. They did some major leveling and improving their skills. The only time people saw them was during the clearing of the boss floors. They felt an obligation to help win this game. The sooner they cleared the entire game the sooner everyone could go home. Sometime in November Argo sold them some information that gave them a tiny bit of hope. There was a quest that appeared on Christmas day. It was a solo quest and the reward drop was a revival potion. It was a long shot, but maybe they could revive Sachi. Hanako turned 13 on the 1st of December and she used that day as a countdown to the revival quest. On Christmas Eve the 49th floor was cleared and as it rolled over to Christmas day Kirito took on the 'Nicholas the Renegade' quest. Hanako waited in the hotel room they got, pacing back and forth in worry and anticipation. This quest boss was very high leveled and she was worried about Kirito. She knew he was strong, they were close to level 60, but he sometimes forgot about his own safety when he was focused on the fight. Not that she could say she was much better. Kirito had told her many times that she had a poor self-view and that she needed to realize that her life was just as important as everyone else's.

The moment Kirito walked through the door she knew that they wouldn't be able to revive Sachi. The look on his face said it all. "Kirito?" she had asked quietly.

He shook his head, "It had to be given within three seconds of death. I gave it to Klien in case one of his guildmates doesn't make it."

Hanako nodded sadly, "Good choice. Three seconds? How does that help anyone? You would need to be right next to the person with the potion already in your hand to be able to save anyone with that."

"Yeah, it's not very helpful in the long run. I'm sorry Hana. I'm sorry we couldn't save Sachi." Kirito said around a bubble in his throat. He wouldn't cry, he just wouldn't in front of Hana. He had to be strong for his little sister.

They spent the rest of the night in sad silence, finally giving up hope of saving their friends. They had traded presents and Hanako had sent Asuna a present via message gifting. She had gotten a gift from Asuna the same way. At midnight a present popped up in Kirito's equipment. Both of their breaths caught, it was from Sachi. They looked at each other before Kirito opened it. It was a message crystal. Hana saved a copy of it into her bag before he played it. Message crystals didn't last after the message was played and Hana wanted a bit of Sachi with her. Kirito activated the crystal and they held their breaths as the message started.

"_Merry Christmas, Kirito, Hana. By the time you hear this, I'll probably be dead. How should I put it… you know, the truth is, I never wanted to leave the starting town. But if I fought with thoughts like that, I knew I'd definitely die someday. That in itself is nobody's fault but mine alone. Ever since that night, you both continued to assure me that I would definitely survive. So, if I died, I'm sure you would try to place all the blame on yourselves. That's why I decided to leave this recording behind. And also, I actually know what levels you both are. I caught a glimpse of it before. Even though I thought long and hard about why you hid your level and joined us, I never did figure it out. But you know, when I learned how strong you guys were, I was glad, I was really relieved. So… even if I die, work hard to survive okay? Live to see the end of this world, find the meaning behind its creation, the meaning behind the presence of a weak girl like me, and the meaning behind our meeting. That's my last wish. Huh, there is still time left. Since it's Christmas, how about a song? (_Sachi starts humming Rudolf the red-nosed reindeer. Kirito starts crying, Hana had started crying when Sachi told her it wasn't her fault_) Bye Kirito, Hana. Meeting you two… and being together with you… I don't regret it at all. Thank you. Farewell."_

Then just like that the message crystal shattered. Hana started bawling and clung onto Kirito. Kirito cried silently as he gave as much strength as he could to Hanako. They fell asleep clinging to each other, tears staining both of their faces.

January was a hectic month. A new guild had been formed calling itself Laughing Coffin. They were a group of red players. They killed and tortured other players for the fun of it. The clearing party started splitting its resources between clearing the floors and trying to capture all of the members of Laughing Coffin. They managed to clear the 50th floor meaning they were hallway there. More than one year in the game and they managed to get halfway through it. They both kept up with helping the clearing party, but now for a new reason. They were fighting for Sachi now. They would fulfill Sachi's last wish. They would beat the game for Sachi, the girl they failed.

Both she and Kirito got unique skills as well. He got the duel wielding skill allowing him to use swords in both hands. During that he acquired the Elucidator sword. Neither of them had ever seen such a well-made sword. It required a very high strength skill to wield and its durability was off of the charts. Hanako gained a skill called frenzy, she wasn't very fond of it and it wasn't a skill she could just unequip. She had been sent through a dungeon solo, on accident, and the trials in there let her gain the skill. What frenzy did was close to what it sounded like. It activated automatically when her health was below a fourth. She could activate it on her own however if she wished, but it could only be activated once every five hours. It allowed her to move at double her speed skill and hit with double her strength skill. The skill lasted for two health points for each second. If she had 30 hit points left than frenzy would last for 15 seconds. Well if one wanted to be technical it would only last for 14 seconds because it leaves her with only one HP. But, if she took damage during that time then the time of frenzy being active also went down, so she had to be careful not to take damage if she wanted to use the skill to its fullest. That was the whole reason she didn't like the skill. While she could tear into anything on the battlefield, once it was done it left her vulnerable. One hit and she would be done, plus when the skill ran out she was paralyzed for two seconds. Hanako had managed to have two potions auto equipped to her that would activate if certain requirements were met. One was a health potion that activated if her HP hit 1. The other was a paralysis potion, because she absolutely hated that she could be vulnerable for however the paralysis lasted. If she gained the paralysis stat that lasted more than fifteen seconds the potion would activate, it had a ten-second delay but most paralysis lasted at least 30 seconds so it was better at least. Hana joked that the frenzy skill kind of made her like a berserker. Unfortunately, someone had heard her joke about that and the nickname stuck. While Kirito was known as the Black Swordsman, Hana was known as the Child Berserker. They were a pair to be feared. But they had managed to finally get beyond the title of Beater and people were finally starting to respect their talents on the battlefield.

It was late February when the clearing party finally cleared floor 55. Later that day Kirito and herself were out taking a walk when they met Silica. Hana really liked Silica, she was really innocent and they were the same age. Her familiar Pina died protecting her and they decided to help her. There was a flower on the 47th floor that could revive familiars if applied within 24 hours of its death. They found out about it when they were looking into ways to possibly reviving Sachi. Silica wasn't the strongest player there was and she seemed to be a monster magnet. They did manage to get Pina revived though and the happiness between Silica and Pina brought a smile to Hana's face. Hana and Silica sent each other friend requests and Hana told Silica to get in touch with her if she ever needed help. After that Silica and Hana sent each other messages often, just casually chatting. While Hana didn't want to possibly put Silica in danger by hanging out with her, messages were fine in her mind. She was happy to say that Silica was truly her friend. Hana had made more friends in this death game than she ever did in her real life.

In April they ran into Asuna again, well more like Asuna ran into them. Besides the messages Hana and Asuna sent to each other, the only time they had really interacted in the past year was during boss fights. Her and Kirito had been napping in a safe zone in Danac and Asuna must have run into them and fallen asleep herself. When they woke up to find Asuna asleep next to them, they couldn't exactly leave her. They had maxed their light sleeper skills, if somebody touched them trying to steal from them, they would instantly wake up. They very much doubted that Asuna would put any skill points into something like that. After that day they just seemed to hang out with Asuna more and more. Hana would watch the two of them interact with soft eyes. They might not realize it yet but they were totally falling in love with each other. They already bickered like an old married couple; it was actually really fun to watch. She had been slightly afraid that once Asuna started hanging out with them that Kirito wouldn't have as much time for her. That couldn't be further from the truth though. Asuna made sure to keep Hana involved in everything they did. Hana was secretly starting to think of Asuna of an elder sister figure. She was able to talk about girl stuff with her and it was really nice.

At the end of June, they met a new friend, well Kirito met her first. Kirito wanted to get a high-quality sword to go along with Elucidator, that way he could fully utilize his dual-wielding skill. She was still the only other person to know about his skill, he kept it hidden for now. Kirito had heard about a top-notch blacksmith by the name of Lisbeth. While Kirito went to go see if he could get a new sword from her Hana went to go hang out with Agil. Agil was a tall black man they had met a while back and he owned a small items shop. He also dealt with information and he was the one that told them about Lisbeth's rumored skill. Hana really liked Agil, he was like a giant teddy bear. But he could be very intimidating especially if someone he cared about was being threatened. She learned that first hand. A group of older guys had been harassing her and Agil had swept in like an angel of death. She had never seen a group of guys cower to a single man so quickly before. It had been hilarious. Ever since then she had hung out in Agil's shop when she had some free time or Kirito needed to go out on a solo thing. She used to hang with Klien when Kirito needed to go out solo, even though she told them she could very well take care of herself. But while she did really like Klien, Agil was like this big calming rock in her life. He would teach her how to identify items and she would help around the shop. It was fun, and somewhat normal. Which was weird for her funnily enough. When Kirito didn't show back up that night like he said he would she got nervous. The only thing that kept her mind at ease was that he hadn't disappeared from her party group. In fact, he was currently teamed up with the blacksmith he went to go see. Hopefully he would be back the next day with an explanation about why he couldn't have sent her a message saying he was fine. The next afternoon she left Agil and headed to the blacksmith's place to find her brother. She actually got there at the same time as Asuna. They chatted happily as they entered the sword shop. When she caught sight of her brother she broke down into laughter, he looked an absolute mess. He did, however, have an awesome blue/white colored sword that was ironically named Dark Repulser. Lisbeth told their story and Hana broke down into laughter again. Her brother had the worst luck besides herself. Lisbeth and herself had hit it off and they had friended each other as well. A warm spot budded in Hanako's chest; she was actually making friends. For the first time since she was eight, she actually felt loved and wanted. Hanako was happy.

August was a dark month. Laughing Coffin started killing more and more players. It became a common thing to learn that a party got attacked by the red guild while out adventuring. They needed to be stopped. They tried being peaceful at first. They had sent out a small party that wanted to try negotiating with the members, to try and get Laughing Coffin to leave them alone. It was a horrible failure; Laughing Coffin killed every last one of them. From that day they declared war with the red guild. They needed help however as they couldn't find out much about the guild. Their help came from a player named Lux, she was forced to join the guild and spy for them after they had saved her. She absolutely hated it and she said she was losing sight of who she was. When she heard that the clearing party was willing to pay for any information about the members or whereabouts of the guild she jumped at the opportunity. She didn't want any money, all she wanted was protection from the guild once they realized her betrayal. And boy information did she have. She knew all of the members, who was best at what, and the ranking of each member. She also knew where they had their home base. The clearing party put together a party of 50 players to take the red guild down. The crusade was one of the worst days of Hanako's life. At the end of it, 21 members of Laughing Coffin had to be killed and 11 members of their own party had been murdered as well. Of those 21, five deaths were on hers and Kirito's hands. Kirito killed two of them, while Hanako was forced to kill three of them.

Something shifted in Hanako's mind that day, she was a murder now. She had killed people. Sure, it had been in self-defense, or to protect someone else. At the end of it, however, she had ended the lives of three people. Why did she herself deserve to live through this? What made her better than the people she had cut down? She had a bad sense of self-preservation before that day, but after it, she honestly couldn't care less. She wouldn't go actively looking for death, and she wouldn't kill herself, but it the situation arose where she had to give her life to save others… so be it. It wasn't even just her friends now, if she saw a stranger in need, she jumped in to help them. So what if it might kill her, she was a murder, she didn't really deserve to live. Kirito had his hands full trying to keep her alive and get her mind off that line of thinking. It was slow going, though.

On October 1st they managed to clear the 73rd floor. That was the first day that Hanako noticed something that would bring a horrible sense of realization to her, Kayaba was in the game with them. He was a player and had been with them the entire time.


	2. Chapter 2

Hanako glared at the man she had her sights on, she had been following him around for the past couple weeks. Now that she knew the truth it was so obvious, how had she not seen it sooner. Her target? Heathcliff, the leader of the Knights of the Blood Oath, the guild that basically leads the clearing effort. Heathcliff was none other than Kayaba. She figured it out during the clearing of floor 73's boss room.

It was towards the end of the fight; the boss was down to its last health bar. She had already entered frenzy and was desperately trying to avoid taking too much damage. She was out of healing potions as she had given her spares to other people in the dungeon that needed them. She quickly found Kirito to make sure he was okay, she found him tag-teaming the boss with Asuna. Those two worked together almost as well as herself and Kirito. Her gaze drifted to others within the room. Klien and his small guild were battling the boss's minions and were holding they're own pretty good. Agil was doing his part as a tank chunking out damage on the boss. Then her eyes caught Heathcliff, right as the boss swung its weapon at him. Hanako's eyes went wide and her eyes flitted to Heathcliff's health bar and horror blossomed in her. This hit would plunge Heathcliff deep into the red, though that itself wasn't that dangerous. She was sure that he had health potions left. That particular hit had a stun effect though so he would be vulnerable to the follow-up attack. He didn't currently have back up that was close enough. As Hanako watched the guild leader take a hit her eyes went wide in disbelief. Heathcliff's health bar didn't even drop into the yellow, that was impossible. That hit should have hit him far into the red. That is when it all clicked in her mind, what kind of god wouldn't want to see his own creation in person. Kayaba could have easily made himself an immortal object and then inserted himself into the game and play it himself. He would have all of the admin access and he could easily play them all for fools.

After that realization, she started watching him more carefully and she couldn't believe how obvious it was. She had known Kayaba in the real world. Her mom and he had worked closely on this project and she had done her beta testing in his lab. She had spent enough time in his presence to recognize his movements and slight give-a-ways. That had started her stalking tendencies. Now she was putting her plan that she had put together into action. She was going to try and kill Heathcliff. She knew it was a stupid plan, and if she was wrong, she was likely going to have another death on her leger. A dark grin split her face; well she was playing an assassin build. Heathcliff was going out on a solo mission and all she had to do was corner him when she was sure that he was completely alone. It took a few hours but she finally found her moment. She knew exactly how much health Heathcliff had and with her stats and putting enough points in the backstabber skill, this one attack would definitely put him into the red. That is if he wasn't who she thought he was. She silently sprinted towards him and activated her attack. She plunged her dagger into his back and she felt him buckle under her attack and heard him give a surprised gasp of pain. She quickly jumped backward and simply watched. His health bar dwindled but stopping before it went into the yellow. Suddenly the notification of 'Immortal Object' popped up over his head.

"I knew it." She glared at him, "Kayaba."

Dry laughter was her answer, "Miss Ishii, I should have known if anyone was going to figure it out it would be you. I do have to admit I was surprised to see you in the game. I knew your mom was a bit unhinged but I didn't think she would risk her last coherent child with this game."

"Then you obviously don't know my mom as much as you think you do; she doesn't give one crap about me," Hana growled out.

Kayaba laughed, "So it would seem. What is your grand scheme here Miss Ishii? What did you plan on achieving with this plan of yours?"

"I'll expose you. Everyone will know who you are and you won't be able to continue as you have been. Everyone will despise you." Hana yelled out at him. This was it, any plans that he had planned would be ruined. She could ruin his life just like he had ruined all of theirs. She spun around and started walking away, intent on pulling out a teleportation crystal and teleporting away. When she tried activating the crystal however, it didn't work.

Kayaba sighed, "Really Hanako, did you think I would simply let you go?"

Hana froze, "What are you going to do? Kill me?" While she didn't really care much if she died or not, she didn't want to die by his hands.

Kayaba let out a sigh, "Of course not Miss Ishii, of course not. However, I can't just let you go telling people about me. I do quite like the current course I am on. So…" he activated his menu screen and typed in some quick codes. In the next instant, her own menu popped up giving her a 'quest failed' prompt.

Hanako frowned as she tried to clear it out, but the moment she touched her screen the 'quest' description popped up. The Truth Quest, status failed.

She looked up, fear blossoming in her, "What does that mean?"

Kayaba smiled pleasantly at her, "It is a quest I made up, just in case my identity was ever found out. The consequence of failing this particular quest is that you are physically unable to tell anyone about anything about said quest. You can't say it, write it, or message anyone about it. You can try, but the system will stop you. Well, it was nice seeing you again Miss Ishii but I'm afraid I must be going." Then just like that, he teleported away.

Hanako frowned, in her personal description just below her stats a new trait was listed. Right under frenzy was a trait called tightlipped. She decided to test it, "Heathcliff is…" that was as far as she got before her voice just cut off. She honestly couldn't tell anyone, this was terrible. Now that Kayaba knew that she knew, what would he do? Her hand clenched angrily around the teleportation crystal that she had taken out before and she teleported away.

Since Kirito was out on a solo mission, she made her way over to Agil's store. Being around her calming teddy bear was just what she needed at the moment.

The moment she slammed open the door to his store Agil knew that something was wrong. He had never seen Hana so mad before, "What's up squirt?"

"Failed a quest." She grumbled out as she climbed the larger man to cling to his back. She loved riding piggyback on him, she could be so much taller than she normally was or ever would be.

"Anything we need to know about?" sometimes failed quests had bad consequences that lasted a while. Agil felt her shrug, but he let it slide. He knew that Hana would tell them if she had a bad trait that would affect anyone, "Need something to do?" he asked casually. He had learned that Hana didn't like not having anything to do. She was a girl that liked to keep busy.

"Naw, I just wanna chill for a bit if that's fine with you." She laid her head down on his shoulder and snuggled into him.

"That's fine with me you little koala." Agil teased as a customer entered his shop, drawing his attention away.

The very next day they cleared out floor 74. As they passed through the stairwell to floor 75 Heathcliff sent her a smirk. Dread filled up in Hana as Kirito put his hand on her back to keep pushing her further as she had stopped. Heathcliff had something planned and she wasn't going to like it. Hana was paranoid the entire day, sticking close to Kirito.

The next day they were hanging out with Asuna when Heathcliff challenged Kirito to a challenge. Hana's stomach dropped when she heard the terms. Heathcliff was trying to take her brother from her. Make her even more isolated than she already was. He was doing to her what she had planned on doing to him. Damn him! She tried talking him out of it, but Kirito was determined.

She watched as Heathcliff cheated and took down Kirito. That wasn't his own skill, he wouldn't have been able to move that quickly. Just like that her brother was taken away from her. He tried talking her into joining with him but she flat out refused. She had made an oath to herself when Sachi died that she would never join a guild again. She told him that she would be fine by herself and then ran away. She ended up running back to Agil. She spent the next few days doing odd jobs and small quests for Agil. She kept a close eye on Kirito's health bar just to make sure that he was okay. So, when a few days later Kirito's health dropped dramatically she went into a panic. She had absolutely no idea where he was though, so there was nothing that she could do to help him. His heath was dangerously in the red before it stopped and then a few minutes later started building again to safe levels. She breathed a sigh of relief and started making her way to the headquarters of the knights of the blood oath. She had to make sure her brother was fine.

She got there at the same time Kirito and Asuna were leaving, hand in hand. Hana barreled right into Kirito, hugging him as tightly as she could.

"Are you alright?" she asked quickly.

Kirito returned the hug, "Yeah I'm fine." He smirked down at her, "Were you watching my health bar again?" he asked with a hint of amusement.

Pink flushed across Hana's cheeks, "Maybe."

The next day Kirito and Asuna got married, with Hana as their witness. Hana had never been happier for her brother. Kirito explained how they were planning on taking a break so they made their way to a lower floor they had enjoyed walking around in. Floor 22 was filled with forests and a calming atmosphere. They ended up getting a small two-room cabin and started having the best time they've had since they got stuck in the game. Hana tried to give them their space so they'd have some time just the two of them. They had a few peaceful days before they decided to take a walk through the woods. Kirito was telling a horror story when the found a kid in the middle of the forest. She couldn't remember anything except for her name which was Yui. They tried to find out who she belonged to, but nobody knew who she was. They decided to keep her with them and when Yui called Kirito daddy Hana had never laughed harder. They had a couple of good days with Yui before they went on an excessively hard quest and they found out Yui was an immortal object. Hana's heart ached as Kirito desperately tried to save Yui from being deleted. He managed to save her data directly to his nerve gear and she turned into a crystal necklace. They were all obviously upset at the loss of Yui, but they tried to not let it drag them down. They spent some time together, just walking around. Then Kirito got the grand idea to try and fish the King of Lakes. To Hana's and Asuna's amusement and joy, Kirito managed to fish out the ginormous fish.

The next day, November 7th, 2024, they got the notification that the clearing party was ready to start the raid for the 75th-floor boss. At ten o'clock they met at Granzam to discuss their strategy and make sure everyone was equipped properly. At one o'clock on the dot, the entire group teleported directly to the doors of the boss room. This was the toughest boss as of yet. The Skull Reaper was terrifying in both strength and speed. To her horror, she started watching players shatter into nothingness. This was the first time in such a long time that players had died during a boss fight. They had gotten so good at watching each other's backs. By the end of the fight they were all exhausted, it had taken more than an hour to defeat this boss. Hana had frenzy activated once towards the middle of the fight and her emergency health potion had been used. Fourteen people had died by the end of the fight and everyone was in a somber mood as they were collapsed in groups around the room. Hana herself was near her brother and Asuna, her health bar was extremely low but now that the battle was over that didn't really matter all that much. Then to her horror, Kirito called out Heathcliff and exposed him for the liar that he was. With a sigh, Kayaba paralyzed everyone but Kirito in the room and gave him an offer to end the game there and then if he could kill him. Klien, Asuna, and herself yelled out to him not to do it. It wasn't like Kayaba would play fairly; her mind jumped back to the last fight the two had. They started fighting and Hana realized that her anti-paralysis had kicked in and she was able to move again, but she pretended that she was still frozen. She wouldn't be much help at the moment, and if Kayaba knew that she was un-paralyzed then he would just re-freeze her and she didn't have a spare potion. When Hana saw Kayaba going in for a killing strike she didn't even hesitate. She jumped in front of the blow, but to her horror so did Asuna. Asuna wasn't supposed to do that, now Kirito wouldn't have anyone in this game with him. Nobody to help keep him afloat.

Dissolving into pixels was a very odd experience. She was sure she was going to die so when both herself and Asuna appeared high in the sky with an absolutely beautiful view she was rather confused. When Asuna called out her brother's name Hana's eyes darted to him before sprinting full force and hugging him as tightly as she could. They talked to Kayaba for a bit before he disappeared. They all fully thought they were going to die once the world finished disappearing.

As Hanako woke up she was beyond confused. She was supposed to be dead right about now wasn't she? She reached up and took the nerve-gear off her head. Her hair fell around her shoulders and down her back. A stray thought flew through her mind that she never kept her hair this long. Long hair was a hazard to have around her mother when she was drunk. Longer hair was a lot easier to grab than short hair. She looked around the room in confusion. With a start she realized she was in a hospital room.

They did it, they actually did it. They beat the game! Kayaba must have saved them for some reason. Hanako felt a drip of hope, if she was alive then Kirito must be too.

The next couple days went by in hectic chaos. There were doctors, nurses, and people from the government wanting to get her statement. The government guy she got assigned was pretty nice, considering everything. He promised her that he would help her track down Kirito. Since she knew his real name that helped a lot. He told her he would pass along a message to him and if he chose to respond he would give her details then.

A few more days passed before the Gov man came back with good news. He had found Kirito and was actually assigned to him as well. He gave her Kirito's phone number and they started texting each other immediately.

During her conversations with the Gov man, she learned about her mother. She had been charged equally as guilty about the whole things as Kayaba. However, she went underground and nobody could find her. When she got released from the hospital she would be going to live with her father. She had mixed feeling about that. On one hand, she was glad she was finally getting away from her mother. On the other hand, her father was a very negligent parent. As an example, in the week and a half, she had been awake her father has only visited her once. The day after she woke up. He had only stayed long enough to tell her what he expected of her before leaving. Honestly, the Gov man has visited her more than her own father.

It was a bit more than a month after waking up that she met someone new. She had turned fifteen a few days ago and had gotten a few gifts from friends delivered by the Gov man. She was on her way down to physical therapy but had to wait in the waiting room for her turn. The therapist had apparently been overbooked from all of the SAO survivors. She felt someone sit down beside her but didn't pay them any attention.

"I've seen you in here a lot, always by yourself. What are you in here for?"

Hanako turned her head to see who asked the pretty rude question. It was common sense not to ask people why they were in a hospital. It's private information. She was a girl, her own age. She had shoulder-length wavy black hair. It was her eyes that drew Hanako in, she looked sad and gloomy. It was a look Hanako saw in the mirror a lot.

The girl continued on when Hanako took too long to answer, "My name is Hazama Kirara. I come to the hospital to visit the terminal patients who don't get a lot of visitors."

"Oh, uh… you can call me Hanako." She answered. The Gov guy had told her not to give out her last name until the whole fiasco died down a bit. Apparently, there were reporters looking for a scoop and even angry parents wanting to come after her. It's like they all simply overlooked that her mother trapped her in the game as well.

"No last name?"

"Nope."

The girl smirked at her, "I like you Hanako. So, why are you here all by yourself?"

"I'm just here for physical therapy. Gotta learn how to walk again." She gave a small shrug, "It's pretty annoying to have to re-learn something as basic as walking."

"I bet." Hazama looked around again not seeing anyone here for the other girl, "So where are your parents?"

Hanako glanced at her out of the corner of her eye. Was she genuinely curious or did she have ulterior motives? As nice as the story of visiting terminal patients was, it could be a lie. For all she knew this could be a sibling or cousin of someone in SAO.

Eventually, Hanako gave a small shrug, "Working." She answered simply, vague was best. Trusting people was not a good idea at the moment. Not that she really trusted people before SAO to be honest.

Before the other girl could say anything more, one of the nurses came out, "Alright Hanako. We're finally ready for you. Sorry for the wait again."

Hanako sent a smile to the nurse, she was one of the nicer ones, "It's alright. It gets me out of my room." She turned back to the girl that talked to her, "See ya." Then she aimed her wheelchair towards the therapy room and disappeared behind the door.

Hazama watched the closed door for a few minutes trying to get her thoughts together, she had seen that girl here the past few weeks. Always alone, or at the most with a nurse. She had never seen her with family for friends. Determination flowed through her, something she hadn't felt in a while. She would befriend Hanako. She seemed like a pretty cool girl, if not a bit mysterious. With a smirk she stood up and made her way to the front desk. The guy that was running it today was pretty cool with her. He regularly gave her room numbers she could go visit with. Hopefully, he could help her with Hanako.

He smiled at her as she came to a stop at the desk, "Good Afternoon Hazama. What can I help you with today? I know for a fact you aren't low on people to visit."

"I need your help if you are able to." Hazama said. She didn't want to get him in trouble.

"Ask and maybe I'm allowed to help you."

"I've been seeing this girl, all by herself, for a few weeks now. I know she's a resident here and not just a visitor. I want to try and be her friend, but she wasn't very open with her information."

"What do you know?"

"Her first name is Hanako, and she's in physical therapy to be able to walk again."

"That should be enough. Give me a few minutes." He started looking up who was currently going through therapy. He genuinely liked Hazama and he tried to help her out as much as possible. He knew that she creeps a lot of people out, but her heart is in the right place. She came here to get away from her parents under the guise of community service. She had a thing with the dark and twisted, which is why she chose to visit the terminal cases. She usually just talked to them, or if they were unable to talk, she would read to them.

After a few minutes of digging he finally got a hit. There had been a few Hanako's he had to go through before he found the right one. As soon as he found her, he realized why the kid hadn't been very open. This was the Ishii kid. They were slowly becoming less but he couldn't count how many reporters or angry parents came demanding to see her. He wasn't sure how her location had leaked but there was a guy from the government around to make sure nobody did something stupid. He glanced at Hazama and started thinking. Technically he wasn't supposed to give out any information about the Ishii girl. However, on the other hand, he knew how lonely the girl must be. Her father has only visited her once, and she hasn't had a single friend visit her either. The only person that regularly visited her was that higher-up guy from the government. With a concerned frown, he scribbled down her room number.

He slid it across the desk to Hazama, "I never gave this to you. You found her room by coincidence while wandering the halls. If anyone asks if you know her, you say no. Under no circumstances do you actually know that she's here." The poor kid really needed a friend. With how much shit she was going to get once she finally got released, she was going to need some support. While Hazama was a bit of an odd one, he knew she was loyal to those she chose to protect.

Hazama grabbed the paper with a nod of thanks before heading out. She would visit Hanako tomorrow, her mom was expecting her home soon. She glanced down at the paper in her hand, what was so special about this one girl? As she exited the hospital, she noticed the usual group of reporters that seemed to be camped out there for the past month. For the first time she really paid attention to them, the desk guys words flowing through her mind. _'If anyone asks if you know her, say no.' _were the reporters here for Hanako? Why?

Suddenly one of the reporters made their way over to her and cut her off, "I'm a reporter for the local newspaper. You're about the same age as her, perhaps you know her. Are you friends with Ishii, Hanako?"

"No," Hazama said with a dark look as she pushed passed the social vulture. Now she had a last name. For some reason, it sounded familiar but she couldn't place it. The fact that she couldn't remember was irritating and she decided to do some research when she got home.

Hazama settled into her room, successfully managing to mostly avoid her parents. She booted up her laptop and searched 'Ishii Hanako.' A lot of nonsense popped up and she scrolled passed it all, just magazine lies. Then an article from a newspaper from about two years ago caught her attention.

'_As of November 6__th,__ 2022, a tragedy began. 10,000 VRMMO players became trapped within the online game of Sword Art Online (SAO.) Over 200 people's lives were lost within the first day as families tried to disconnect them from the game before the announcement went viral. The creator of the game_ _Akihito Kayaba declared himself god of that world and if one dies in the game they die for real. Taking off the player's nerve-gear would also kill them. Hospitals around the country had to make room for thousands of patients. As the investigation began and the hope of releasing the victims from the game diminished, new information was released. Out of the dozens of workers dedicated to the making and release of SAO, only one other person knew of the game's true intention. Ishii Fuyuko, who was an engineer for the game, was in the know alongside Kayaba. Both of which have disappeared. A search is being commenced and if anyone has any information about the two, they are urged to contact the police. Further investigation into the Ishii family found that Ishii had her own daughter, Ishii Hanako, play the game knowing her daughter would be trapped within until the game is beaten. Whether Hanako knew about the truth behind the game is unknown. Now, one month after the launch of SAO over 2,000 people have lost their lives to the death game. Rumors about a permanent division in the government being made dedicated to virtual reality games have been recently confirmed. Further information will be given as soon as it becomes available._

Reality dawned on Hazama, Hanako was a SAO survivor. She had effectively been in a coma for the past two years. Put there by her own mother. Her determination grew brighter, she would befriend Hanako. The world was soon going to be against her. Well, Hazama didn't really care about what the world thinks. She was friends with someone like Terasaka and his group. Plus, she was bound to 3E next year, and the world is always against them.

The next day found Hanako rather bored in her room. She only had physical therapy three times a week. There were others here from SAO, plus the hospital's normal patients. They had to call in extra therapists all over the country for all of the extra patients. There were around 6,000 people that suddenly had to learn how to walk again. It was safe to say they were overbooked. She was currently working through a book the government had put together to catch-up on the past two years. There was also school work she could work on, but that was the last thing she wanted to do. That had been the one good thing about SAO, no school.

A knock on the door frame caught her attention. Her eyes widened in surprise when she saw it was the girl from yesterday.

"What are you doing here?" Hanako asked in suspicion.

Hazama walked in and sat down in the chair like she owned the place, "I do some community service with the hospital." She fibbed with the same story she told her parents, "The hospital staff was cool with me coming in to talk to you."

Hanako frowned, "Somehow I find that hard to believe." She was pretty sure the hospital would have talked to her first, to get her permission.

Hazama smirked, "Alright you got me. I'll be perfectly honest. I want to be your friend. I do know who you are, and the whole thing with you mom, but I could care less."

Hanako was confused, "Why would you want to be my friend." Nobody ever wants to be her friend. They were all wierded out by her odd behavior. She had to keep some distance to keep people from asking about her home life, cause she really sucks at lying. She did want friends though. Nobody cared enough to even try and get passed her barrier.

"You seem like a cool person, and you look lonely. I get that, I truly do. Give me a chance and I'll prove that I mean it." Hazama said as seriously as she could. She wasn't really sure why she wanted to befriend her so badly. It was like she felt a connection with her.

Hanako bit her lip, should she trust her? She was usually a really good sense of character and she didn't sense any ill intent from her. It wasn't like she had a lack of friends, not anymore at least. She would always have Kirito. Plus, her Gov man had helped her track down Agil, Klien, Silica, and Lizbeth. He hadn't been able to find Asuna yet, but he promised that he would keep looking. She had all of their numbers and they texted each other all of the time. It wasn't like she could see them yet though. Nobody was released from their hospital's yet and wouldn't until they could walk a bit better. As chance would have it none of them had been put into the same hospital either. However, it wasn't like a person could have too many friends. Plus, if she did end up becoming friends with Hazama, she wouldn't know her dark deeds within the game. Hazama had the potential to be her normal, non-gamer friend.

"Fine, I'll give you a chance. But if I sense anything weird, I will call security on you." Hanako warned.

"Deal." Hazama agreed with her normal creepy grin.

A week later the two girls were fast friends. They were a bit of an odd duo, but they fit well together. Neither of them expected anything from the other and both appreciated it. Hazama came to visit for a few hours after school every day.

"I heard the government was putting together a school for all of the survivors. You excited about that? You'll get to see your friends a lot more often." Hazama was sitting on the chair with her legs thrown up on Hanako's bed. Her friend was going to be released in another week and she wouldn't get to visit her as much. She was determined to become as close to her as possible in the time she had left at the hospital.

Hanako pouted as an angry expression appeared on her face, "Well, I was until my father had to go and ruin it." Her own legs were thrown on top of Hazama's

"How did he ruin it?" Hazama asked. She already didn't like the man and she hadn't even met him. He seemed like the type of parent who didn't care about their kid unless it benefited him. He had only visited Hanako once in over a month since she woke up.

"Since the school isn't mandatory, just highly suggested, he decided that the school was below his standards. Apparently, I have to go to the school I was supposed to attend before the incident. I don't know how I'm supposed to survive, being two whole years behind." Her entire demeaner looked defeated.

"What school is the Jerk making you go to?" that had become her nickname for Hanako's dad. She had originally wanted to call him the Tool but her friend had immediately shot her down. It had pulled a laugh from her so she called that a win.

"That's the worst part, Kunugigaoka. I have heard horror stories about classes there. My father is friends with principle Asano and got me put in the grade I was supposed to be in as if SAO never happened. The condition from the principle was putting me straight into 3E. I've heard that third-year students are practically doing high school level work. I don't even have a first-year education."

Hazama looked at her slack jawed for two reasons. One, what a prick move to force her to attend one of the toughest schools in all of Japan. Secondly, what were the odds that they were going to be in the same class?

"Well, you won't be alone at least. Oddly enough I'm bound for 3E myself next year. There is no way I'll be able to get my grades up at this point."

Hanako's eyes brightened, "Really" Oh thank god. I was so scared I was going to be all by myself."

Hazama hesitated for a moment before deciding why not, "I could introduce you to a few others who will be in 3E as well. I'm friends with three others." They were the actual delinquents of the class, but they ere pretty cool overall. Mostly just judged and misunderstood.

Hanako looked down at her handheld game that she had paused at the start of the conversation. There were times when the two of them just hung out silently, Hazama reading while Hanako played a game.

More people? Did she really want to meet more people? She would eventually meet them when the next school year started up. It would probably be better to know more people before then. Most of the other students will at least know each other from previous years. She will definitely be one of the odd ones out.

"Um… sure. That would be nice, I think." Her hands tightened around her game. Honestly this was so irritating at times. She had been a completely different person in SAO. She had been a confident strategy leader, fighting on the front lines during the boss rooms without fear. Once she got out, she was instantly back to the girl who was scared of going home in case her mom was drunk. The girl who double-guessed every move she made and avoided others. She was honestly doing her best to be more like she had become in SAO.

Hazama nodded as she started packing up her stuff., "How about I just start with one? I can drag him along tomorrow, it's the weekend so he'll have time."

Hanako let out a breath, "One is perfect. Thanks Hazama."


End file.
